David Beckham is going to be loaned from Los Angeles to Milan for a couple of months early next year, and it’s a much bigger story in England than it is here. So, no change since Beckham’s arrival in the summer of 2007. He’s still a bigger story in England than he is here.

I keep looking for cynicism and ridicule in the English papers’ on-line coverage today of Beckham’s plan for a temporary move to AC Milan. I don’t see it. Give ‘em time.

For the moment it seems straightforward. The Galaxy is out of season until April. Beckham knows he must keep playing to keep his spot on England’s national team. AC Milan figures it can use him, though his exact role isn’t clear yet.

Some soccer fans here fear — and some non-fans hope — this move will lead to Beckham’s permanent departure from the Galaxy. But there’s no indication that’s the case in anything anybody involved in the situation is saying today. Loans aren’t unusual in the world of professional soccer. Only they don’t often involve David Beckham, AC Milan … and the L.A. Galaxy … so speculation is natural.

For the most complete account I’ve found from an English paper, click here.

I blame the Boston Red Sox. When they won the 2004 World Series, it was their first championship in 86 supposedly cursed seasons, and writers and broadcasters correctly jumped all over the story of the long-disappointed baseball town’s relief.

But that story sold too well, and now it seems like the “first title in X years” angle has to be the one anybody writes and talks about when a team wins a World Series or other sports championship.

The Philadelphia Phillies’ World Series victory is their first in 28 years (and their second ever). Yeah, OK, but is that really such news?

Since baseball returned from the 1994-95 strike with a new playoff format, the World Series winners have included the Red Sox as well as the White Sox (first title in 88 years), Braves (81 years), Cardinals (24 years), Yankees (18 years), Angels (first title ever), Marlins (first title ever) and Diamondbacks (first title ever).

World Series winners ending long droughts are the rule rather than the exception. In the same recent span, the Red Sox won twice in four years, the Marlins won twice in seven years, and the Yankees won three years in a row.

I can only compare it to what happens in the NCAA basketball tournament every year, when journalists react with gleeful surprise that a Cinderella story develops. Hey, you put 64 teams in a single-elimination tournament, and one of them is bound to go a couple of rounds farther than expected.

A team that hadn’t won since the Carter Administration has won it all. What else is new?

I counted 15 seconds between the strikeout that ended the World Series and the celebration scene being spoiled by the appearance of merchandising-department tools running up to the dogpile to hand out “World Series Champions” shirts and caps to the Philadelphia Phillies. And another couple of seconds before video cameramen ran up to the dogpile to shoot closeups they evidentally couldn’t have got from off the field if they knew how to work zoom lenses. And a moment or two more before the stage for trophy presentations and network interviews was being set up on the edge of the infield.

As annoying as the appearance of all these peripheral people was to those of us watching on TV, imagine how intrusive it must have been to fans at the stadium who wished to witness the pure human joy of their heroes but wound up feeling like a studio audience at an infomercial taping.

Naturally, within minutes there was a commercial asking us to buy knockoffs of the shirts and caps the Phillies wore in their clubhouse celebration, and mlb.com was advertising the same partywear.

Someday, Bud Selig and the bosses of other sports leagues will allow a genuine human moment to breathe. Just as soon as they figure out how to sell air on-line.

Pro basketball must be the world’s greatest sport. That’s the only possible explanation for the apparent excitement over Tuesday’s NBA regular-season openers, which came amid publicity that’s all about the meaninglessness of the NBA regular season.Continue reading “What are Lakers playing for?” »

The Dodgers had won the World Series many times before, but never like this. On Oct. 21, 1988, Daily News readers savored the previous night’s series-clinching victory over the Oakland A’s. Those readers turned to fine baseball writers like our own Matt McHale to put it in perspective. I’m sure many fans have a copy of that paper in a drawer somewhere. For those who don’t, here’s the lead story in that historic sports section.Continue reading “Dodgers: 20 years ago today” »

Hope you’ll have a chance to check out the on-line package we’ve put together to preview the Breeders’ Cup horse races at Santa Anita on Friday and Saturday. (Click here.) There are guides to Breeders’ Cup history, to Santa Anita itself, and to betting on the races — of interest to racing fans and beginners. It’s part of Breeders’ Cup coverage that will include daily feature stories, news and betting tips from Art Wilson and me. Expanded coverage on Thursday will contain detailed looks at the 14 Breeders’ Cup races and your first glimpse at handicapper Bob Ike’s opinions on who’s going to win.

Our old Dodgers beat man Matt McHale summed things up beautifully as the 1988 Dodgers drew within one victory of the World Series championship. As their injuries mounted, the Dodgers “were starting to look like a squad team in Vero Beach,” but the results were showing “just how far an Ace bandage can roll.” Here’s Matt’s story for the Daily News of Oct. 20, 1988.Continue reading “Dodgers: 20 years ago today” »

Kirk Gibson’s and Orel Hershiser’s heroics in Los Angeles did not propel the Dodgers directly to the World Series championship. There would be at least one setback along the way. Here’s the Daily News’ lead story in the sports section of Oct. 19, 1988.

When Daily News readers picked up the paper on Oct. 18, 1988, the Dodgers were halfway to winning the World Series but well aware of the fragility of the momentum created by Kirk Gibson’s Game 1 home run and Orel Hershiser’s Game 2 brilliance. Lucky for them — and for readers — the Dodgers had veteran players who’d been on both sides of World Series leads. Their thoughts were the topic of Matt McHale’s story from the off-day before Game 3 in Oakland.Continue reading “Dodgers: 20 years ago today” »

The 2008 Dodgers might be through, but the 1988 Dodgers are still going strong in our daily look back at the club’s last run to a World Series championship. Today’s installment is from the Daily News of Oct. 17, 1988, and recounts Game 2 of that World Series, the game after Kirk Gibson’s home run. A colleague who joined the Daily News in the past couple of years tells me how much he’s enjoying reading Matt McHale’s stories and finding out how good a writer Matt was. Matt died in June, and showing off these stories about the ’88 Dodgers is meant as a tribute to him as much as to them. Matt had the knack for capturing the emotion, the ups and downs of a baseball campaign, without overstatement or overwriting, which made him the perfect man to chronicle the feats of Kirk Gibson and today’s hero …Continue reading “Dodgers: 20 years ago today” »